Dearly Departed
by Forrestib
Summary: Rapunzel is sent to discover why the music of the world has stopped playing. She finds a dying Muse in the woods. He tells her a story about how the music was made. Written as a tribute to the late Monty Oum, may he rest in peace.


Author's Notes:

I wrote this short piece as a tribute to the late Monty Oum, one of the greatest creative minds of his time. May his memory live on in all of us, and everything he inspires us to create.

This story takes place in the universe of my crossover, Frozen Hearts and Minds. It'll all make a lot more sense if you've read at least the first few chapters of that first.

* * *

It was Rapunzel's first mission with the X-Men and she was already supposed to save the world.

There had been a disturbing phenomenon. Over the last few months, there had been no music, no songs. No-one had sung a single note in months. And the people were suffering for it. The sky seemed darker now, the shadows longer. Everyone could feel something wrong with the fabric of everything.

She and Isabella approached a small wooden cabin just outside the borders of Andalasia. It was carved out of the remains of an enormous hollow oak tree, and had a harp built into the side of it. Wooden flutes hung from the branches and the roots came up in the form of drums. But no sound came from any of it now.

The two walked slowly up the front steps, and knocked on the door. It swung open before the second knock.

A voice echoed from the inside, "Come in. I've been expecting someone to come sniffing around here trying to fix the world."

The interior was larger than seemed possible to fit within the confines the tree exterior provided. Although still humble, it was very well kept. The redwood floors were polished to a shine. Brass sculptures were on display in glass cases, depicting impossible paradoxes of geometry. Isabella studied a 2-dimensional hypercube once she was done admiring the twelve-pointed triangle.

Once they reached the bedroom, they saw the face to the voice they had heard before. At first, the bright red skin and pointed chin frightened Rapunzel, reminding her of the tall tales Gothel had told her of cannibals with sharpened teeth. Then she saw the dimmed eyes, the sad expression, and the blanket that was barely held on to with the last of his strength.

This man was dying.

Rapunzel immediately knelt next to the creature, "Hold on. I'm a healer. I can help." She held her hand to his ridged forehead and...

She couldn't sing. She couldn't heal if she couldn't sing and she couldn't remember the song. The lyrics came to her with ease. But there was no melody, no instrumentation.

The man laughed with a yellowed smile that still seemed to hold some distant vestige of dignity, "Yeah, sorry about that. Your song can't save me. I'm afraid it's too late for that anyhow."

Isabella cut straight to the chase, "Then you know why we're here."

He nodded, "I do. You want to know why the music died."

Isabella simply nodded in return.

The man closed his eyes, obviously weary with years, if not with age, "Alright then. Get cozy and I'll perform a little history lesson for you."

Rapunzel stayed put, on her knees next to his bed, ready to help. Isabella pulled up an ornately carved wooden chair that somehow supported itself on only half of one leg.

The pale blue eyes opened to stare into the ceiling, as if examining it for details long forgotten, "Ten thousand years ago, a wizard by the name of Yen Sid kept peace and balance over the entire world. You probably haven't heard of him. He didn't like to brag. But an apprentice of his grew too ambitious. One slight rounding error on a routine spell and suddenly the oceans start flooding, coasts rise and land is buried. All very chaotic and unnatural.

He fixed it, of course. Drained the seas and set everything right, except the people. The people couldn't be changed quite so easily as the land, you see. And they wanted revenge for the hardship the apprentice had caused them. Wise old Sid knew if he let 'em at it they'd rip him apart. So instead, he cursed the apprentice to play a harp in the forest, for all eternity. And the people could come and listen to him play, and revel in the music. Not as good as revenge of course, but it kept them at bay.

But eternity rarely turns out as it should, and the magician hadn't planned for his own death a few centuries later. The apprentice played on and on and on, until one day, a villager volunteered to take his place. See the villager had fallen in love with him and his music. She wanted to see an end to his suffering.

But you know how true love tends to play magic like a fiddle. And so it goes that the curse was flipped, and so from that point on, the music played on that harp would play in the hearts of everyone who ever loved. And if the harp didn't play, neither would their hearts.

So began a long line of Muses, of which the apprentice was the first, and yours truly, the Lord of the Dance, is the latest and greatest."

Isabella spoke respectfully, "And now you're dying."

The muse nodded, "That's right. Every few hundred years this will happen. Don't worry. Once the new Muse gets here the songs will play out like never before! I just don't have the energy to play anymore. He's a nice guy. He'll be coming through a portal not far from here. Goes by Williams, J Williams. You'll point him in the right direction, won't you?"

Rapunzel vigorously agreed, happy to be able to help somehow, "Yes. We will."

He smiled, "Good. Then the fate of the world is in good hands. I only wish-" The pale eyes gazed up, past the two of them towards a white gown in a glass case, "I only wish I could've found my queen."

Then the eyes went dark, and his hand fell limp at his side. After several moments, his body began to disintegrate into light, gradually fading until nothing was left but an empty blanket.

The two left. The next day they met J Williams in the forest, and gave him directions to the tree hut. Only a day after that the sky was blue again, and the singing returned in full force. If anything, there were more songs than ever. Isabella supposed that Sweet hadn't been working as hard near the end as the new Muse could.

Still, that didn't make what they had witnessed any easier. Not just the death of a man, but the end of an era. The passing of a legacy, from one creator to the next.

* * *

Author's Notes:

There you go. A bit of mythology backstory for the Frozen Hearts and Minds universe.

I also wanted to show in some small way that I haven't forgotten about this site in the last few months. I'm still working on both Frozen Hearts and Minds and Our Little Superman. New chapters for both are coming... eventually.

But really, I might have stopped writing if not for Monty and his brilliant example. He influenced me more than I ever realized when he was alive. This little tiny story is the very least I can do in his name.


End file.
